Event details


Title Jane Austen’s Novels in their Social and Cultural Contexts
Date Thu 28 Sep
Event Autumn Short Course
Time 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Venue Canterbury Campus
Contact artsandculture@canterbury.ac.uk or Tel: 01227 922994
Price Standard Adult - £105.00

Thursday 28 September 2017 | 2pm-4pm |10 sessions Tutor: Geoff Doel | Canterbury campus | £105 Jane Austen died 200 years ago in 1817 and her novels vividly explore key social and cultural aspects of late Georgian and Regency England. Socially they deal with the mores of marriage, with eligibility and even moral character, sometimes conflicting with love and desire. There is also emphasis on the gradations of society, the occupations of the middle and upper middle class men, the role of women and the leisure activities of both. Culturally, Sense and Sensibility explores the cults of the picturesque and of sensibility and the dangers of romantic excess and misjudgement. Characters are partly judged through their literary tastes. Pride and Prejudice, in addition to its close preoccupation with choosing marriage partners and the social enjoyment of dances, features a holiday with a visit to a stately home. The critique of the social etiquette at Bath Spa is splendidly exemplified in Northanger Abbey and Persuasion and both feature literary debates (on Gothic novels in the former and the poetry of Scott and Byron in the latter). Sir Thomas Bertram’s income in Mansfield Park comes from slave estates and the vicar’s wife in Emma has merchant relatives in Bristol whom she claims support abolition. Fanny and Edmund in Mansfield Park combine in their delight in the poetry of Cowper and Scott, and a controversial and compromising play is almost privately performed.

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Last edited: 25/03/2020 08:44:00